Comic Relief to fund Tech for Good initiatives
Howard Lake | 30 April 2015 | News
Comic Relief is inviting applications to its new ‘Tech for Good’ fund, a pilot programme within its UK Main Fund.
Having recognised the importance of digital technology in addressing social challenges, it aims to “support not-for-profit organisations in using digital technology to create social change by delivering new ideas or more effective services”.
What Comic Relief will fund
The Comic Relief Tech for Good fund will support between six and eight digital projects with grants of between £15,000 and £60,000 for up to six months. To be eligible projects must address any of the charity’s UK Main Fund themes of:
• Safer Lives
• Healthier Finances
• Better Futures
• Fairer Society
• Stronger Communities
More on eligibility
Grants are designed specifically for not-for-profit organisations that “already have some technical expertise and capacity to enact social change using digital technologies”. The projects should:
• be focused on specific user needs
• make best use of web, mobile apps or internet based technologies to deliver a service
• scale effectively
• challenge existing ways of delivering services
The grants are not designed to fund hack days, upgrading charities’ IT systems, or improving websites or social media campaigns.
The deadline for applications is 3pm on Friday 8th May 2015.
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Comic Relief and digital
Comic Relief has been funding digital product development since 2010 through the Innovation Labs initiative, which focused on developing websites and mobile apps for young people to seek support for their mental health and wellbeing.
It shared its lessons from this in a free download, Learning from the Labs: how to fund and deliver social tech for charities and social enterprises.
Main image: technology for good by sabri deniz kizil on Shutterstock.com
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.